Bed Bath & Beyond, Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) announced its formation of joint venture with privately-held Mexican home goods retailer Home & More, S.A. de C.V.  BBBY invested $4 million to acquire a 50% equity stake in a new entity that currently operates two Home & More stores in Mexico City, which offer a variety of home furnishings, giftware and domestic merchandise. 

Mexican business newspaper El Financiero reported today that Benetton Group SPA, the Italian fashion clothing manufacturer, signed an agreement with Sears México, S.A. de C.V. to develop its brand in Latin America and reduce its dependency on Western European sales.  Benetton plans to open points of sale within Sears México’s retail centers as well as an additional 50 stand-alone retail stores, giving the marque approximately 250 retail outlets in Mexico by the year 2011.

Benneton’s press release described the attractiveness of the Mexican market for the fashion business.  "With its rapid economic growth and young population (60% below 24 years of age), Mexico is considered one of the key markets on the American continent."  The release also announced that Benneton will open a new office in Miami to monitor and manage sales, marketing and distribution for the Latin America region. 

Sears México is controlled by Grupo Carso, which is controlled by Mexican billionaire (and No. 2 on Forbes’ 2008 billionaires list) Carlos Slim Helú.  In addition to Sears México, the companies Slim controls include, among others: Telmex (Mexico fixed line telephony); America Movil (Americas wireless telephony), a few of the subsidiaries of which include Tracfone (U.S. prepaid wireless telephony), Claro (Brazil wireless telephony) and Telcel (Mexico wireless telephony); CompUSA (U.S. personal computers); Banco Inbursa (Mexico commercial and personal banking); and Grupo IDEAL (Latin America infrastructure development). 

It is nearly impossible to do business in Mexico without running into one of Slim’s entities or family members.  Slim appears to have created his own PR website, which contains some great photos and informative commentary.

On May 22, 2008, British-European private equity fund Aureos Capital closed a $5 million investment in Mexican transportation equipment leasing company Analistas de Recursos Globales, S.A. de C.V. (ARG) through its Aureos Latin America Fund (ALAF).  ALAF is a $300 million fund that targets Mexico, the Central America Region and the Andean Region. The press release said that “ARG, which started operations in 2001, provides operating leases of transportation equipment like automobiles, trailers and specialized vehicles and provides fleet management services for companies. It focuses on small and medium-sized Mexican companies that find it difficult to obtain leasing contracts through commercial banks.”

According to its website, Aureos Capital was established in 2001 as a global private equity fund manager specialized in providing expansion and buy-out capital to unlisted mid-cap businesses in emerging markets. Aureos aims to double funds under management to US$ 1.2 billion in the next 2 years, and will launch new funds in Latin America, Central Asia, and Pan Africa.

The expansion of U.S. and other international businesses into Mexico continued its rapid pace in the fourth quarter of 2007 and first and second quarters of 2008, including moves by:

• Honda Aircraft Company, Inc. (Greensboro, NC; light aircraft), which opened a retail sales and service outlet at Mexico City’s Toluca International Airport for HondaJet light aircraft through a joint venture with Servicios Aéreos Estrella, S.A. de C.V. (Press release here);
• Aquentium, Inc. (Palm Springs, CA; food safety, low income & disaster relief housing, energy, automotive and recycling), which formed a Mexican subsidiary, Aquentium de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. to provide low-cost and prefabricated housing (Press release here);
• Tata Consultancy Services (India; information technology), which expanded its Global Delivery Center in Guadalajara to provide IT consulting services (Press release here);
• GW Plastics (Bethel, VT; plastics), which expanded its Querétaro Mexico plant (Press release here);
• InterContinental Hotels Group, which opened its first Hotel Indigo brand hotel in a historic 100-year old hacienda in Merida (a second hotel will open in Mexico City in 2009);
• Wendy’s International, Inc. (Dublin, OH; burgers), which entered into two development agreements with two franchisees to open more than 60 Wendy’s restaurants in Monterrey and Mexico City (the existing Wendy’s Mexican franchisee, Wenco-Mexico, S.A., currently operates 12 restaurants in the northern Mexico cities of Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua) (Press release here); and
• BIAS Corporation (Atlanta, GA; Oracle systems integration and resale), which opened a Mexico city office to provide consulting service, IT staffing, and Oracle software sales.